Note: This post has been updated from a version previously published elsewhere on November 8, 2024.
Sometimes, it seems like a series of crises has been never ending since at least 2020. Many of us are wrestling with complex, large-scale issues and personal stresses that are leaving us feeling burnt-out and far too weary. In light of all this, tai chi may not be an answer that immediately comes to many people’s minds. I assert, however, that embodied practices in general, and tai chi in particular, are more important than ever to cultivate resilience and maintain resistance to powers of oppression and cruelty.
Tai Chi and Health Cultivation
Tai chi has many health benefits that are much needed during times of change. It improves cardiovascular health, strength, flexibility and balance. It helps increase emotional regulation and can provide a source of community – much-needed in these times! It is low-impact enough that people of all ages and abilities can benefit and practice with a variety of modifications available to suit the individual’s needs.
Tai Chi, Spirituality and Philosophy
The practice of tai chi relies on a strong foundation of Taoist cosmology and other Chinese traditions and perspectives. Some of these are quite lacking in the North American context. Tai chi can aid in cultivating a “both/and” mentality and breaks down concrete, static binaries that are often favoured in Western ways of knowing. Tai chi doesn’t divide the mind and body as NeoPlatonic and dualistic tendencies that influence Western culture do. Instead, tai chi encourages a holistic perspective that emphasizes integration of the physical, mental, and emotional aspects. Tai chi is born out of a culture which emphasizes the collective to a greater degree than the hyper individualistic Western context, and thus encourages the development of humility, compassion, and respect.
Tai Chi and Physical Literacy/Somatic Vocabulary
Tai chi is an excellent tool for increasing your relationship with your own body and the bodies of others. Practicing tai chi requires developing sensitivity to how force moves through your own body. This requirement increases both situational awareness and self-awareness. It allows one to become more knowledgeable about one’s own body and encourages both the reliance on and the reliability of intuition.
Practicing tai chi also requires the ability to look at the movements of others for various purposes. Initially, this is to replicate the movements; as skills progress, it will be to counter the movements of others. Regardless of the purpose, it helps one to be more aware of the non-verbal dynamics present in our relationships with others which can help to mitigate microaggressions and other possible sources of harm, both intentional and unintentional.
Tai Chi As Martial Art
Contrary to the perceptions of many in North America, tai chi is a comprehensive system of martial arts. Diligent practice and training can lead one to become a high-level martial artist, skilled in self-defence. Becoming a skilled marital artist via tai chi is not as easy as with some other systems, requiring a deeper investment in terms of time and energy, but it is well-worth it as tai chi’s combat methods are highly effective allowing you to overcome your opponent efficiently by utilizing time-tested principles. Cultivating the martial aspects of tai chi can increase confidence and self-esteem, and can literally save your life and the lives of others. Tai chi’s fundamentally defensive orientation is ethically admirable and somewhat paradoxically, encourages exhausting every opportunity to avoid physical combat. If such efforts fail, or ethical imperatives dictate immediate action, the tai chi practitioner who has cultivated the martial aspects has a resource at hand to meet the immediate needs and prevent injury to themselves and other potential victims.
Personally, the practice of tai chi, especially as a martial art, has also provided me with a positive masculinity that emphasizes sensitivity, awareness, and harmony and which acknowledges that matching power with power is a fool’s errand. My instructor has said that all martial arts are fundamentally about conflict resolution. If the outcome of conflict is decided by who is stronger or faster or more powerful than there is little hope as there will always be someone stronger, faster, or more powerful than you. The practice of tai chi encourages resolving conflict by redirecting an attack in order to neutralize it or use the opponent’s own attack against them. In other words, it encourages resolving conflict through wits rather than brawn. For all of these reasons and more, tai chi provides a much-needed fix to Western messaging of masculinity that emphasizes looks and brute strength rather than more subtle sensitivity and awareness.
Concluding Reflection
Tai chi is fundamentally about balance, albeit a dynamic balance that is capable of responding and adapting to relative changes. The goal is always to maintain one’s balance above all; martial applications focus on unbalancing your opponent with relative little focus on what happens after that because it is understood that if your opponent is unbalanced while you remain balanced there are a host of options available to you. In a time such as this, when imbalance is so rampant, there are few things more potent than being able to maintain balance both within yourself and in relation to the people and world around you.
The Dreamers' Corner 